


It Started with a Marriage Law (That They Didn't Follow)

by sunset_oasis



Series: Drarry Stories [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU with Tom Riddle born in the 1980s like the rest of them, F/M, M/M, Marriage Law Fic, With A Twist, i'm terribly sorry about the whole cheeriness (not really), it wasn't supposed to be this cheerful when i wrote it in my mind but turned out this way anyway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-13 22:04:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9144043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunset_oasis/pseuds/sunset_oasis
Summary: In 1997, Ministry of Magic passed a marriage law due to the decreasing population of Wizarding Britain. Hermione knew that her boyfriend Tom would NOT be happy to hear that, as a Head Girl, she'd been paired up with the Head Boy Draco Malfoy instead of with him.  (AU with Tom Riddle born in the 1980s.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> To be honest, marriage law fic isn't really my thing (but if you like it, it's cool too, we all have different preferences), so I decided to write one.  
> Hope you enjoy it :)  
> Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

_2010_

The whole thing had started because the Ministry and the Wizengamot had been filled with a bunch of backwards, medieval thinking idiots, who had thought that a marriage law would be a good idea. In Tom Riddle's eyes, there was nothing more atrocious than seeing power in the wrong people's hands.

Thankfully, that had been the past.

Now, the central of the political power in Britain were in the right hands – the new, smaller, more elite group, the Wizarding High Council, which consisted of a small group of wizards and witches who made the laws, including Tom and his wife and another few people, and while Tom valued most of their suggestions, his words were always final. (Unless he and Hermione had some major argument and he eventually relented, but thankfully, they didn't argue often.)

And they had a charming Minister for Magic because they all agreed that the public still needed some leader, some figure to look to. While none of them exactly wanted that job, after some lengthy debates Draco Malfoy had been put up to the position, while Harry Potter played the role of a supporting and loving husband of the Minister, setting a shining example and a big step forward in the gay marriage in the Wizarding Britain.

"A toast to the 10 anniversary of Wizarding High Council?" Blaise Zabini suggested, raising his glass. Beside him, Luna Lovegood beamed at Tom and Hermione, "10 years since the successful coup."

Tom sighed, for the hundredth time probably, "I told you not to use the term coup, Luna, its politically incorrect." But he couldn't really get mad at Luna – nobody could. That was just part of her charm.

She laughed, "Don't worry, I don't use it outside here."

Tom rolled his eyes in resignation – 10 years since the successful coup as Luna called it, 13 years since the previous Ministry had passed the stupid marriage law, giving him the idea to stop it and to take it a step further to rule the Ministry himself, Luna Lovegood hadn't changed one bit.

 

* * *

 

_1997_

Hermione Granger stared incredulously at the Ministry Letter. A marriage law? Were the British wizards really this outdated? She couldn't believe it. No matter how the Ministry believed the magical population was in decline, people shouldn't be forced into marriages. This just wasn't right.

And she just had to be in the year that was affected by this stupid law. According to the letter, all British wizards and witches born during September, 1979 and August, 1980, had to complied with the marriage law or be sent to Azkaban. The Ministry would see how the results of this new law were before deciding whether to implement it again a 5 years later. If only she were born 3 weeks earlier … Hermione thought bitterly. _Stupid Ministry of Magic and their Medieval style thinking._

And, as the Head Girl, she wasn't surprised that the Ministry chose to pair her with the Head Boy – Draco Malfoy. There was just no way she'd be agreeing to this. First, her boyfriend Tom was a bit – well, possessive seemed an understatement. And secondly, Draco was gay and he had a crush on – okay, Hermione wasn't exactly sure who. Draco had once revealed that he had a crush on some boy in their year on a too drunk occasion, but he never told her who that boy was. Though personally, she had always suspected it was Harry.

She entered the Heads' dorm and found Draco and Blaise there. Draco was playing with a snitch absent-mindedly while ranting about how stupid the marriage law was and didn't the Ministry even consider that not everyone was straight? Blaise was leaning against the sofa casually, a wicked smirk on his face, and it broadened even more when he saw Hermione coming in.

"Well, well, it seems that the congratulations are in order," the dark-skinned Slytherin drawled, "To my dearest friend Draco and to the future Mrs. Malfoy." He bowed in mock salute. Draco threw the snitch forcefully in Blaise's direction, which the other boy dodged easily and the snitched slammed right into a vase, breaking it. Blaise chuckled.

Hermione glared at Blaise, "Seeing you're awfully smug, I think I can reasonably guess that you got paired with a really pretty witch or something. Who's it? One of the Patil Twins?"

"Actually, no," Blaise smiled crookedly, "I'm not being forced to marry anyone, unlike you miserable people. You see, the marriage law affects the _British_ wizards and witches. I'm _Italian_ , Tesoro Mio."

Now Hermione understood Draco's urge to throw the snitch at Blaise. She turned to the Head Boy and asked, almost hopefully, "Do you have a spare snitch that I can throw at him, too?"

"Sure," Draco responded, then he added. "But if you really want it to hit him, I suggest you aim at anywhere else but him. That gives you a better chance, considering your terrible aim."

Hermione scowled while Blaise guffawed. A moment later, the door opened again and this time it was Hermione's boyfriend, Tom Riddle, who walked in. Hermione had originally wished Tom could be a Head Boy like she was a Head Girl, but apparently Salazar Slytherin had made some stupid rule stating that only Pureblood Slytherins were allowed to be a prefect or a head boy/girl. Thankfully, at least Draco Malfoy was competent enough to work with – although nobody really rivaled Tom's intelligence.

"Tom!" Hermione exclaimed, "Did you read the Ministry letter yet?"

"No," Tom replied as he put his backpack down onto a chair and went to give Hermione as kiss, "I was helping Slughorn with some advanced potions all day. What's the letter about?"

Blaise stood up and announced, "I think I'm heading out before another person decides to throw the snitch at me, it'll be too foolish to hope that everyone had the aim of Hermione." He smirked at her indignant expression before turning to leave.

"I may not be a jock like you and Malfoy, Zabini, but I think that I, unlike Hermione, do know that what you people throw around in a Quiddich field is a Quaffle rather than a Snitch—"

"Excuse me? I do know that! I don't play Quidditch but I've read the rules in my first year!" Hermione interjected.

"—and if I want to harm you, I know a lot creative hexes that would work better than a snitch—"

"More the reason for me to leave now," Blaise interrupted smoothly and opened the door. Before stepping out, he turned back with another smirk, "And happy marriage again, Mr. Malfoy and future Mrs. Malfoy." Then he left and closed the door in a swift manner.

 

* * *

 

"This is ridiculous," Daphne said again, for about the fifth time today. "What exactly is the Ministry thinking?"

"If that's not a rhetorical question, love, then I'd say that they think it's a good way to help with the decline in the magical population—" Theo began.

"It is. A rhetorical question, I mean, not a good way," Daphne snapped. "This is ridiculous."

"That's the sixth time you've said it today," Theo murmured, pressing his lips against hers.

-TBC-


	2. Chapter 2

_2010_

"Lovely 10 years," Harry agreed, smirking as he swiftly grabbed the last cookie on Draco's plate. The two of them both had a crush on each other since they'd been in Hogwarts, but it'd taken quite a while before they both admitted this feeling to each other.

"Hey, give my cookie back," Draco quickly protested as his hand reached to Harry's mouth to snatch the cookie, only for Harry to suck on his fingers. He yelled in indignation.

Tom and Hermione exchanged an amused glance – apparently, becoming the Minister (and his spouse) hadn't changed these two either. Tom sincerely hoped the pair didn't behave this way in the public.

"Remember when Draco and Harry weren't together?" Pansy smirked. "All they do are obsessing over each other secretly, and looking sulky and alone when they didn't see the other person."

 

* * *

 

_1997_

Pansy was straddling Neville's lap in the common and chatting with him and Harry in the Gryffindor common room. "This is so unfair," she complained. "If we were born one year earlier or one year later, then we wouldn't be affected by this stupid law."

"I know, darling," Neville sighed.

"I don't want to break-up with you and marry Thomas," she continued, "I don't even know him!"

"Dean's an okay person," Neville mumbled. "But yeah, you're right, this sucks."

"It's slightly better for you, Harry," Pansy sighed. "At least you don't have any girlfriend you need to break-up with."

"But I'm not interested in Parvati," Harry said in frustration. What he didn't tell them was that he wasn't interested in _any_ girls at all. They just held no appeal for him. Though, to be fair, most boys didn't hold any appeal for him either, there was just one – the Slytherin seeker and Head Boy, Draco Malfoy. But Harry didn't think Malfoy would be interested in him.

Harry's thoughts drifted to last week when he and Malfoy was chasing the snitch on the Quidditch field. It was a Gryffindor-Slytherin match. Harry would never admit it to anyone, but one of the reasons – besides how good flying felt – that made Quidditch so appealing to him was Draco Malfoy. He just loved racing the other boy on a broom. He loved the competing dynamic between them, and he secretly though Malfoy looked extremely attractive when he was so lively flying on a broom, his beautiful blond hair messed up by the wind. Simply gorgeous.

Harry sighed again. Maybe it didn't matter that he was forced into a marriage or not, since Draco Malfoy wouldn't want him anyway.

 

* * *

 

Tom had always knew that the Ministry of Magic were really outdated and full of prejudices, but he hadn't expected them to go this far. No, this was definitely beyond limit, the last straw that broke the centaur's back. He was not going to allow his Hermione be married off to someone else, for she was his just like he was hers. He wasn't going to let some stupid law made by that medieval bureaucracy change anything. Draco Malfoy should be very glad that he was gay, or Tom might've taken some very, very drastic and creative procedures to ensure that he didn't go along with the marriage law.

Now, as Tom and Hermione lay on Hermione's bed inside her room in the Heads' dorm after some fierce snogging, they started to talk about the law that they both despised.

"They're going to send teenagers just out of Hogwarts to Azkaban if they don't comply with the marriage law," Hermione scowled, " _Azkaban_! How insane is that? Unbelievably barbaric!"

"The Ministry is ran by a bunch of idiots," Tom said scornfully as he gazed up at the ceiling.

"I bet we could do it a lot better than them," Hermione muttered.

Tom didn't reply for a moment, then he said, "Actually, that's an idea."

"What?" Hermione asked absent-mindedly, stroking Tom's chest.

"Let's change a few things and make _us_ the ones running the Ministry instead."

 

* * *

 

Draco and Blaise saw there was a new announcement pinned on the bulletin board in the Great Hall when they were on their way from the library back to Draco's dorm.

"All students subjected to the marriage law are required to go on a date together for the next Hogsmeade weekend?" Draco read aloud, the anger in his voice barely concealed.

"Good luck with that," Blaise said cheerfully. "After Riddle kills you, could I have your leather jacket? I really do like it."

"Shut up, Blaise," Draco snapped, "And if my jacket was somehow left to you after my death, I'll come back to haunt you as a ghost."

"Seriously, Draco, you've been extra-protective of that jacket ever since this year started, why?" Blaise raised his eyebrows at his best friend, "Did Potter somehow accidentally touch it or something?"

At Draco's sudden blush, Blaise's eyebrows went higher up into his hair and he let out a low whistle, "My, my, aren't we a little obsessive here?"

Draco scowled, then tried to retaliate, "Well, with all of the girls being forced into a date with someone, you'd be _soooo_ lonely without a Hogsmeade date."

"Don't be silly, Draco," Blaise scoffed, "only the girls in our years are in the scope of the marriage law. I'll easily ask a younger girl to go with me and with me being all charming and irresistible, she'll agree."

Draco glared at his best friend, but had to grudgingly admit that Blaise was right. The other teen was the epitome of the word irresistible, and he attracted girls like a magnet.

Blaise gave Draco a smug grin, then he suddenly heard a dreamy voice behind his back, "That's on the borderline of overconfidence, you know."

The two Slytherins whirled around and saw Luna Lovegood gazing at them in amusement.

Blaise examined the Ravenclaw girl and cocked a slanting eyebrow, "I don't think stating a fact can be qualified as _borderline overconfident_ , Miss Lovegood."

She merely looked at him with a calm expression, "Of course _stating the truth_ isn't."

"If you have any doubts about my charm or irresistibility," Blaise leant close towards her, "I'd be happy to show you, Lovegood. Let's say … by the same time next week, you'd probably fall for me already."

"Hmmm, interesting speculation," she remained unperturbed by the sudden proximity with the handsome Italian, unlike most of the girls in her year who would've gone overly excited.

Sensing the challenge, Blaise grinned wolfishly, "It's not just a _speculation_ , darling."

"Care to prove it?" she said pleasantly, her blond hair whirling in the air as she turned to leave.

"Challenge accepted," Blaise smirked widely. "See you around, love!"

Luna walked out of the Great Hall, thinking about her discussing with some of her housemates last night. While some girls had been debating on what kind of dresses and make-ups or sweet gestures would be most effective in attracting an extremely popular boy's attention, Luna had some different thoughts. (The Ravenclaws loved their debates, they were interested in discussing everything, from complicated charms to everyday stuff to romance.)

And when she had met Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy in the Great Hall today, she had decided to experiment with the little theory of hers. Casting a little doubt on his charm, with an act of nonchalance – those seemed to work a lot better than simple praises and fawning over or sweet behavior, and she had indeed made him intrigued enough.

While she knew she was just trying to prove a point, like he probably was, she couldn't deny that he was indeed a charming and pleasant person to interact with … this week should prove to be interesting.

 

* * *

 

"It's going to take years, Tom," Hermione rolled her eyes, "going into the law department or something like that first, building connections, applying for the election of the Minister and getting our ideas out … and the marriage law is going to take effect a lot sooner than we can get anything done."

"Well, running the Ministry can be our long term goal, while not obeying the stupid law and still stay away from Azkaban would be our short term goal," Tom said logically.

"I do agree that we should find a way out of this stupid law … but are you actually serious about taking over the Ministry part?" Hermione asked, sounding a little disbelieving.

"Well, we can do it better than those morons who are currently in charge, so it's good for the public. And I like power, so it's good for me. Win-win situation, isn't it? So why not?" Tom laughed.

-TBC-


	3. Chapter 3

_1997_

Out of all the Hogwarts professor, Tom secretly admired Slughorn the most.  Not his potion brewing skills, not something so academic because those were easy to obtain with enough talent and some work, but rather - Slughorn's … Slytherinness.  Normally, a professor wouldn’t have as much influence as a politician would, but Tom had seen the amicable old man being able to invited many famous people to his Slug Club gatherings, and a lot of them still had quite some respect for him.  Tom had only seen Slughorn asked for tickets to professional Quidditch games or stuff like that, but he was pretty sure if manipulative enough, a position like that could also influence many more things – getting important laws passed, putting the people he wanted in right places, subtly ruining someone’s career if he disliked that person.

Tom aspired to be like that, to be a seemingly harmless professor but actually be able to pull all kinds of strings in the Ministry and even the whole magical Britain.  Subtle power plays … the thought alone made him excited.

Combined with his interest in the Dark Arts, he’d always planned to become the DADA professor – the current professor Lockhart was a buffoon and he was pretty sure he could get rid of the man easily.

But now, if they were planning to outright disobey the law and maybe even take over the Ministry someday, then his original plan required too much time to gain influence.  If the Ministry expected the marriages to happen within the first 6 months after their graduation, he didn’t have enough time to cultivate his influences.

“The Ministry seemed really desperate about this, if they’re talking about Azkaban,” Hermione flipped through a large law book she found in the library, “It’s unlikely to get them to revoke the law when it’s just been passed.”

“We should kill the Minister,” he grumbled, but he knew that wouldn’t solve the problem.  She quickly pointed out the same thing to him, not taking her eyes off the book.

“That wouldn’t remove the law – the Minister doesn’t make the laws, and he couldn’t abolish them by himself either,” Hermione said dismissively. That was what Tom loved about her - she wouldn't go lecture him on morality, but was rather practical when solving problems.  Combined that with her Gryffindor courage, his lionness was an undeniable force.  He loved her dearly.

“Then we get rid of the Wizegamot,” he suggested.

“Tom, be serious,” she rolled her eyes, punching him in the arm.

“I am,” he insisted, “I don’t mean that we kill them all, but we can … disband them or something.”

 

* * *

 

_2010_

And so they had disbanded the Wizengamot.  It took a lot of work, manipulating the media, spreading the ideas into people’s head about the original Wizengamot being too outdated, both Harry’s and Draco’s families’ large connections with different people … but eventually, they’d succeeded.

“While he might’ve obsessed over me, I’ve never obsessed over _him_ ,” Draco replied indignantly after Pansy’s accusation.

Harry raised a skeptical eyebrow, not hiding his amusement, “Excuse me?  You were the one who came to watch the Gryffindors’ Quidditch practice just to look at me!”

It was during these times Tom would wonder if he’d picked the wrong people to help with his ruling the Ministry … but, since they seemed professional enough outside their love lives, Tom gradually got used to it.

“I didn’t go to look at _you_ , I was looking at the whole Gryffindor team to plot our team’s strategy to win against you! I even remember taking notes about it!” Draco glared at Harry, ignoring Blaise’s not-so-subtle cough in the background. “Not everything’s about you, Potter!”

“That’s Mr. Potter-Malfoy to you, love,” Harry shot back, grinning ridiculously.

Tom resisted the strong urge to roll his eyes and decided that if he had to endure any more of this, it was going to give him headaches.  He turned to Hermione and gestured towards their private chamber, “Let’s go have some private celebrations of our own?”

She smirked in delight, “That sounds fun.” Taking his extended hand gracefully, beautiful and shining as always in Tom's eyes, Hermione stood up and followed him into their chamber.

It was going to be a fun celebration.

 

* * *

 

_1997_

“So, captain,” a fifth year Slytherin chaser asked Draco eagerly, “have you found out their strategies today?”

Draco mentally cursed himself (and the younger chaser). He’d told his team that he would do some spying on the Gryffindors’ practice that afternoon to find ways to defeat them in the games, (and also glared at the Gryffindors and told them it’s a free school they couldn’t forbid him to sit on the stands while they practiced), but all he focused on that afternoon was Harry Potter, and he hadn’t paid any attention to the rest of the Gryffindor team.

Luckily, Blaise came to his rescue fast, shoving some notes into his hand, “I just read through the notes you took at the spying, and I agree with you that V-formation might be best as counterdefense.”

Draco quickly scanned through the notes, mostly Blaise’s identifiable scrawl scribbling about the Gryffindors’ moves, and he felt grateful towards his friend, but also wary too because he was pretty sure Blaise would ask for something in return later.  When Blaise voluntarily helped him out with something like this, Draco was almost sure his friend already knew what he planned to ask for later …

Draco’s gratitude faded as quickly as it came when his eyes fell onto the bottom of the notes.

A heart symbol was drawn at the bottom of the notes, just large enough to write two different name initials (to be precise – D.M. and H.P.) into each halve of the heart.  Draco tried to maintain his cool façade but couldn’t help blush when he saw it.

Screw the gratitude, Draco was going to kill Blaise for this …

-TBC-

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr: ff-sunset-oasis.tumblr.com


End file.
